So here we are in mid October looking towards the fall season and the beginning of the Holiday season. All the kids have been back to school for the first semester. Quickly the crud starts to build. The temperature drops and we start heading back indoors. What a better way to start the season than a visit to work by Covid-19.
Like a recurring dream
They say you should not let your guard down, but it was easy to get back to “normal”. Going to work, working with residents, coming home to make dinner.
I have still followed some precautions of stripping off scrubs at my truck into shorts and a t-shirt underneath. It was more comfortable that way with the summer heat anyway.
Knock, knock an old friend is back
Suddenly the nightmare starts happening again. It all starts with 1 resident family member testing positive for COVID. Then suddenly the resident is positive and up goes the isolation protocols. Treatment in room as well as full PPE again.
It will be fine, it’s only one. It has happened before with 1 case popping up here and there and boom its gone without issue.
Sometimes it is resilient
Suddenly another one pops positive. Then another one. Then another one. Then a staff member. Ok. We can do this.
Now it seems more and more people are “off”. Something is wrong. More people are coughing. They are still negative though. Is it time to start wearing a mask again as a precaution? Next you are walking down the hallway and the resident you were working with this morning has isolation PPE hanging on the door. Just great 45 mins face to face and no mask.
Back to full precautions
Ok so now it’s getting real again. Decision time, will it be a surgical mask, TN95, or N95. Is it time to wear safety glasses again? I don’t know what to do yet.
Wait a minute, how many are we up to????? Oh crap. Time to utilize universal precautions and treat them all as if they could be positive. True N95 and eye protection from this point on. Hope for the best and hopefully the latest booster is effective.
